COLORADO SPRINGS — Even though Christmas is over, for many people who ordered gifts, Christmas is still on hold.
Colorado Springs resident Susan Moore is still waiting.
“My sister in Maryland mailed a package on the 14th of December,” Moore said.
So is Alamosa resident Stacey Holland.
“So I ordered it December 10,” Holland said.
They’re still waiting for gifts that were supposed to arrive in the mail within three days of ordering.
“The origin place was Houston, Texas,” Holland said.
Instead, their packages are… somewhere.
“It just barely left Houston December 24, and I still don’t have it today,” Holland said.
“It went from one facility in Maryland to the southern Maryland distribution center two days later,” Moore said. “I think it took another two days to get to District Heights, Maryland.... And then it took three days to get to Hyattsville Maryland, and that was on the 21st of December.”
For Black Forest resident Mindy Harrington--
“I figured I had plenty of time,” Harrington said.
The gift she sent her kids in Chicago December 11, got there the day after Christmas.
“When I went into the Post Office… the piles of presents going out was bigger than I’d ever seen,” she said.
“It’s like a mountain of packages everyday,” USPS spokesperson James Boxrud said.
It’s been quite a year for the Postal Service.
“This is the busiest month of the busiest year we’ve ever had,” Boxrud said.
A somewhat unexpected busy year.
“Last January when we were preparing for this Holiday season, we had no idea,” he said.
--No idea that a pandemic would force more people to turn to shipping their gifts.
“This week, even though it's not Christmas week, this week is just as busy as the previous weeks,” Boxrud said.
They’re working hard, and keeping optimistic.
“If you mailed early, that’s great, if you didn’t and you;re still waiting on a package, it should arrive this week,” he said.
Boxrud said just in Colorado Springs alone, the Postal Service delivers anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 packages every morning, and their carriers are working sun up to sun down, rain or shine.
